Melisande walked slowly up her apartment stairs, phone glued to her ear. On the other end, Wesley was trying to explain to her how he'd had problems chewing through his furniture in his first house when he'd just gotten out of the military. They'd been talking a lot lately, just as she suspected they would have, but she couldn't really say she was sorry. He wasn't actually as much of an asshole as she'd initially thought, and even though it was primarily his fault that she was a lion in the first place, she felt like she was beginning to get the hang of it.
She turned the locks over to her apartment and pushed the door open. "Alright, Wes. Bye," she said, a large smile on her face. She couldn't imagine chewing through her reclining chair's fabric. She looked at it fondly, and nearly jumped back in surprise when Drew stood up from it.
"Jesus!" she cried. "You scared me! I thought you went to go see that movie with Josh already," she said, hand to her heart. She knew she smelled him, but he'd been at her apartment so much it was useless to try and identify if he was currently there or if it was just residue - she never cared enough to, but he'd surprised her.
When met with a stare, she held her hands up. "What?" she said, voice slightly annoyed still from having the shit scared out of her. "...Drew?"
He hadn't meant to scare her, really. Honestly, he hadn't! He'd let himself in and settled into a chair because he was still ever so slightly paranoid about hanging around outside the door, given what had happened with that crazy lady, and he hadn't thought she'd mind, at least initially. He had something to talk to her about, so that might change in the next few minutes.
"Josh canceled, somethang goin' on with Aimee. Movie prolly woulda sucked, anyway," he told her, trying to figure out how to breach the subject on his mind. It wasn't going to be easy, no matter how he did it. "Uh, Melisande? Can I ask what's goin' on with you an' Wes since I...got back? I mean, I ain't gonna freak out or anythang an' I don' blame you if you don' really like me so much after that mess, but if you like him..."
He trailed off, not really sure how to go on with that. Pretty much, he just wanted to know. If she was into Wes, he was going to be pissed at Wes for awhile, but he'd get over it. That was her choice, but he wasn't blind. He'd noticed how much time they were spending together, he'd heard her say goodbye to him as she pushed the door open, and he'd seen the fond look on her face. He wasn't a total idiot, despite the impression some people got.
Mel's smile as he said that his plans got canceled faded just as quickly as it'd come. She had opened her mouth to suggest something naughty, like strip-poker, but then Drew'd plowed right on, dumping words out in front of her so quickly that, after a moment to process what he'd said, she realized that he might not have gotten them out at all if he hadn't have sped through his little speech right then. She wondered how long he'd been working them over in his head, and she narrowed her eyes a little at him, folding her arms.
"Andrew Richardson, have you lost your mind?" she demanded, stomping her foot like a child. It was hard to take Melisande seriously when her cherubic cheeks with their little dimples were still present as her lips twisted into an angry frown. Her size wasn't at all intimidating, and neither was her voice - especially when she pulled a stern mom-move like that, but stomped her foot like an impudent child. No, none of that seemed to help her any - but the fact that in the last few weeks, something about her, something nobody could put their finger on, had changed, made the volume in her words that much more present, and that much more serious.
She leveled her gaze at him, still unable to believe what she'd heard. "First off, why would I leave you after all of that happened? And secondly, heh," she said, a surprised, dry laugh edging out in between her words, "Wesley? Really? I mean... really?" she asked, throwing her hands up in the air, her voice shrill.
"If I didn't want to be with you anymore, I'd have taken my key back and told you to GTFO, not sneaked around behind your back with your friend. Get real," she snapped. "And I'm honestly hurt that you'd think that. I mean, I work at a strip club, I expected to eventually hear something about thatl, but this is a little far-fetched," she said, giving him the raised eyebrow expression, like an annoyed Disney princess.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that he was in trouble when she pulled out his full name like that, and all he could do about that one was be glad that she didn't know his middle name, or she'd have probably done the full 'mom' thing and pitched the whole thing out there. Even his own mother didn't do that anymore, though he hadn't exactly done anything stupid enough to warrant it in a hell of a long time. She'd yelled at him after she was done being relieved that he hadn't died in the Middle East, but that was about it for his whole adult life.
Damn.
"I'm askin' 'cause I don' know! I ain't tryin' ta accuse you of anythang, but y'all been talkin' a lot lately an' I don' get it! Somethang's been goin' on, and nobody wants ta tell me! If it ain't 'cause you don' like me, then what's goin' on?" he asked, his volume going up only because he really HADN'T meant to piss her off, was feeling defensive, and really WAS frustrated as hell that NOBODY would tell him what the big deal was. Something had definitely changed, and he was out of the loop. He didn't like being out of the loop, especially when it involved everyone acting funny. As far as he could tell, it looked like the other four had paired off and left him to wonder what the hell was happening.
In a way, he was right, but so very, very wrong otherwise. They'd 'paired off' only so far as infecting each other with the shifter virus, and he didn't know it, but that really wasn't something he wanted. He didn't want to be left in the dark, though.
He just didn't know WHAT to think.
Melisande had been about to start into him again, but Drew raising his voice at her was enough to make her visibly flinch and take a step back, eyes wide. Her mouth actually fell open a little at the notion he'd just done it, and for a second, it looked almost like she was about to cry. Her lips pressed together and her eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring as she exhaled heavily through her nose.
She didn't say anything, just reached over and locked whatever locks hadn't already been secured on her door, and then looked at Drew. Without warning, she reached out, planting a hand flat on his chest and shoved him back into the chair (good thing it rotated). "Sit," she commanded. The fact that she was able to push him down with what seemed to be very little effort, she hoped, would be enough to earn his silence for a precious few seconds while she spoke.
"I'm going to show you something, and it's not going to explain everything, but it's going to be a start. Now, from you, I want no running, yelling, screaming, or in general any very sudden movements. Promise," she said. When he opened his mouth to protest, she held up an index finger, shaking her head, falls of light brown hair brushing her shoulders.
"Promise," she said again.
He honestly hadn't meant to raise his voice at her, but he'd come from a large family, so he couldn't quite shake the habit of getting loud when something happened. You weren't heard in a family like his unless you got loud, and he did it whether it was something good or bad that he was animated about. This, what with how it upset and frustrated him, was certain to get him to raise his voice some, and he really wasn't angry, especially with her. He would never do anything to scare or make Melisande cry on purpose.
Josh and Wes, yes. Melisande, no.
He stopped at her expression and flinch, realizing that he'd messed that up and gotten loud, but it wasn't like he could take that back. He didn't feel like withdrawing his questions and defensive remarks, since he'd meant those, but the volume he would have. His bad. Of course, having her shove him one handed into the chair definitely got him back for the volume.
It also shut him up for sure. He positively stared up at her, aware that he wasn't THAT easy to shove around, and she hadn't even looked like she put any effort into it. He'd have believed that of Wes, because the guy was built like a Mack truck, but this was Melisande. What the hell?
"Promise? What if I wanna run, scream or yell? I might do it on accident! What's goin' on?" he asked again, the tables turned and him staring at her wide-eyed now. She seemed dead-set on this promise, though. Fine, he'd do what he could. "I promise ta try not ta yell or freak out. Melisande, what's goin' on?"
He'd have been lying if he said that he wasn't getting paranoid at this point. What was she going to do?
"Well, try," she said finally. She shifted her position for a moment, and then clasped her hands in front of her as she spoke. "Okay, Drew. A lot has been going on since... well, it all sort of started.... Okay, thing the thing is..." She tried to explain several times before sighing, and wringing the sleeves of her terrycloth zip-up hoodie so much that she might've permanently damaged them.
"The reason Wes and I have been hanging out so much is that... well.. He's a shapeshifter. So is Aimee. And actually, Aimee made Josh one, too. And Wes made me one - but Josh didn't know about any of this until it happened. All Hallows has tons of them, it's why the people there are so pretty. Vampires, too. I know it sounds crazy, but it's all real, and I really can't sugarcoat it any for you, because that's the long and short of it. We think you were attacked by a vampire, and that's why you got beat up so badly by a woman who's evidently my size."
"There are some vampires who are really bad; they run a place where you can buy people like slaves and really bad stuff happens there. They can just snatch people right off the street, well, humans anyways. There's a law saying that shapeshifters, like me, are 'freeblood', which means we can't just be grabbed and thrown in without one of our own kind selling us. So, basically, to prevent that from happening, Wes infected me. Aimee infected Josh, and, well, I said I'd infect you, but I don't like keeping things from you. I've been trying to figure out how to tell you, but I know you don't believe me, so I figured I'd just show you...."
Melisande's form seemed to fade away, leaving the large form of a female lion in her place. The animal was regal and beautiful, sitting on her haunches with golden eyes staring directly at Drew. She moved forward, low-crawling to show him she meant no harm, to attempt to nuzzle his leg with her head.
Drew watched Melisande with a suitably concerned expression when she told him to try, then had trouble even beginning to explain, since that just didn't sound good. It was when she jumped right into it that he reacted.
By staring at her like she'd just made a really, painfully bad joke at his expense. Shapeshifters, and vampires, weren't real, and everyone knew it. She had to come up with some ridiculous story about her, Wes, Aimee and Josh being shapeshifters? What was Wes, a refrigerator? And why would she even bring up his attack, only to blame it on a vampire? That was low.
Yeah, she was right that he didn't believe her, and that was plain on his face. Skepticism was really the only way he could even consider approaching this subject, which made him think that she really hadn't taken anything about his personality into consideration when she asked him to promise not to freak out. Why would he freak out that she told him she was seeing his friend because they were, what, shapeshifters? Besides the fact that it sounded like total bull.
Then, she showed him.
And he just stared.
He couldn't move for the first few moments, because it was just that insane. He must have lost it, right then and there. Something in his brain must have just popped, because guys didn't see their girlfriends just turn into great big lions. It didn't happen. He didn't move until she crawled forward and actually touched him. It was as though that physical contact was what broke him out of his stunned paralysis.
"OH, HOLY SHIT!" he howled, his promise to try not to do so forgotten in the insanity of the situation. He jumped back from the MASSIVE cat so fast that he essentially ended up crab-walking up the back of the chair, and flipped it backwards so that he could land in an entirely ungraceful pile just past the chair itself. Fortunately, he also landed on his head, and you may wonder why this writer actually thinks that's a good thing, but really, it was. It meant that he stopped spazzing and had to deal with the injury as his immediate concern. That included grabbing the area that was soon going to be a nice goose-egg, and wincing while staying put.
That was one way to get him to chill for a moment, and by the time he was done recovering, he stared at the cat again. "This ain't happenin'. No way," he murmured. He definitely wasn't dreaming, though. That crack on the head had hurt.
The lioness actually sighed, a strange thing to see, watching her boyfriend flip the chair over. The noise startled her, but she only sat up for an instant before realizing he'd banged his head pretty hard - hard enough to calm himself down, which means it had probably hurt. She crept alongside of him, lowering her head to him to nudge him a little. She could hear him saying that it wasn't happening, but obviously her presence suggested otherwise.
She nudged his hand specifically, like an animal who wanted attention, specifically, to be petted. A soft rumbling sound was coming from her chest and throat - Melisande was purring. It was probably beneficial to her that she'd worked at All Hallows for as long as she had, because she'd picked up being a lion quite well, if you ignored the fact that her size was still a little bit of an issue. Her tail flicked behind her, and she'd found that if she moved through her living room without much care, she'd knock things on her table over with it.
She nudged him again, trying to show him that she was okay, and that she wasn't going to hurt him. She even managed a playful sort of "purrrow?", though from a lion it wasn't quite as soprano as a common housecat.
He sat up, at least, but he didn't go any further than that. He made no attempt at standing or fixing the situation with the chair, and had his head clutched as he stared at the chair as though it had offended him. Better to focus on that than the ca--
Oh, she was touching him. Touching him! A lion! In Melisande's apartment! And the best part, it was supposed to be Melisande! He was insane! He had to be! He wondered if he tried to run, if the lion that he thought his girlfriend was would eat him. Maybe. He wanted to call Josh and tell him to come over, though. He needed his friend to tell him that he was being crazy and wasn't seeing this. Maybe that would snap him out of it.
He didn't want to get eaten for it, though. That wasn't worth it, even if his brain only THOUGHT he was getting eaten. He imagined it'd still suck.
"Um. Okay. My girlfriend's a lion. That's great. I need ta call Josh, so he can come tell me I'm crazy," he told the cat, feeling even stupider for talking to a LION, but she nudged his hand and it occurred to him that not petting her or whatever she wanted and yelling might result in him getting eaten. Not being eaten was his big goal. "I'll be.....righ' back. Don', uh, yeah, be back in a sec."
He got up slowly, watching her like she might take a swat at his ass (which would have scared the HELL out of him), and he edged towards the kitchen for a foot or so before bolting inside and whipping his phone out, dialing Josh, and hoping that he wasn't going to be ignored for anything going on with Aimee.
Finally, he got an answer. "JOSH. I'm at Melisande's, an' I thank I lost my mind, but I gotta HUGE cat in the livin' room, an' you need ta get over here so I can prove ta myself that I'm crazy," he explained fast, pretty much all in one breath. Josh better not argue, because he wasn't going to deal with it. This was him freaking out as quietly as he could because there was a LION in the other room who really didn't need an excuse to eat him. He'd promised her he wouldn't yell.
Melisande watched him, a little disappointed that he wouldn't pet her, but she couldn't really expect him to just accept her with open arms. That would have been too easy, really. At least the hard part was over. As he dashed into the kitchen to phone Josh, who no doubt would simply try to calm him down as opposed to accelerate the situation any (she hoped), she changed back into her human form, and walked in after him.
"Drew," she said, tone more than a little pleading. "Josh already knows. I told you, he's a leopard. He reacted pretty much the same way you did, if it makes you feel any better," she offered. She reached out to touch him, but her hand fell short as she pulled it back. She realized he might not want her to touch him right then, and it hurt her feelings to imagine it.
On the phone, Josh did pretty much exactly what Melisande had said: A lot of "I know's" along with the confirmation that he was also a cat. Josh encouraged Drew to talk to Melisande about it, saying that he was in the middle of something at work, and he'd call him back when he had a chance.
Melisande looked at him expectantly, eyes still that pretty liquid golden hue from her feline form. She attempted to smile, but it didn't quite meet those amber eyes, and she just shrugged. "Are you mad at me?" she asked softly.
No! No, no no no!
Josh wasn't supposed to say 'I know' and say that he was a cat! He was supposed to tell him that he was being ridiculous and that he was suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or something! Imagine that, he got shot off in the Middle East and thought he was going to die without having those problems, but now he got kidnapped and hung on a wall for a few days and couldn't keep it together. That was brilliant. He was getting stupid in his old age.
Finally, he couldn't listen to it anymore, and hung the phone up. Talking to Josh wasn't helping.
He turned back to Melisande, leaving the phone on the counter where he'd dropped it in frustration, and he actually managed to miss the gold eyes for a moment. He felt better talking now that he didn't think she was a lion anymore, though.
"This is crazy, Melisande, totally cuckoo. I didn' jus' see you turn inta a big cat, right?" He looked at her finally, made eye contact, and his heart sank. Her eyes had never been that color before. How could this be true? How could he have possibly missed this?!
"Fuck. I gotta sit down," he said suddenly, not even worrying about her responding to that question. This looked way too true, and he didn't know how the hell to deal with it, but what choice did he have? He could have told himself that he'd been crazy and thought the lion thing up, but her eyes were gold. That wasn't right. He waited until he had a chance to sit down at her dinner table, set his head down for a second just to concentrate, and finally just groaned. "No, I ain't mad. Jus'....Christ, this ain't right, none of it."
Melisande's expression fell more when he went through the small motions of trying to rationalize something that she'd already shown him. At least he said he wasn't mad at her, but she didn't really believe him. People said a lot of things when they were confused or frightened, so Mel was still somewhat worried about the now-precarious balance of their relationship. She sighed, again, and moved in his direction, wincing as he thumped his head down on her kitchen table. She drew her fingers at his shoulders, rubbing them gently, trying to comfort him.
"Yes, Drew. I'm sorry I shocked you, but really, it's not that bad. I kind of like it, actually," she said softly. "It wasn't precisely what I wanted, but I'm happy I got it - not like you," she said with a smile. She leaned down to kiss him lightly on the cheek, and she couldn't help herself, rubbing her own cheek lightly against his to nuzzle him, mark him. Hers. Hers. "You're just what I wanted, so please don't get scared or angry at me, okay? I can't change what I am, now."
She motioned for him to sit back, and sat down on his lap lightly, wrapping her arm around his neck and leaning against him. She could smell him now like she'd never been able to before - warm, soft, like gunpowder and aftershave. It made her smile, and she became a little worried that he was going to leave her because of all of this, which took the smile right off her face.
"Please promise you won't leave over this?" she asked again, her eyes still somewhat amber, though they'd begun to fade back to their normal blue. She faced him fully, tone very soft, but serious. She needed to know if she could trust him in that respect, because if not, she probably would just ask him to leave right then, and... then she'd go cry to Aimee.
No, he really wasn't mad at her. He wasn't lying about that, and he actually wasn't at all mad now. Just confused and dreading the fact that he knew he wasn't crazy, and that this was real. It just didn't seem possible. He'd seen other things over the past few years that didn't seem possible, however, so who was he to judge?
He flinched slightly when she first touched him, but it was Melisande, so he relaxed after that instant, but her 'not like you' had him thinking that she was going to tell him something else he didn't want to hear. He wasn't sure what, but he definitely wasn't expecting to hear her say that he was just what she wanted. That was when he turned to look up at her, right after the kiss on the cheek, and he didn't object in the least to her making herself comfortable in his lap. That didn't mean he was okay with all this mess, but he really wasn't mad at her. Why would he treat her like he was?
"Whoa, wait. Who said anythang 'bout leavin'? You turn inta a cat an' scare the hell outta me, and alla sudden I'm leavin'? Darlin, I been shot at, chased by rabid dogs an' had some crazy shootin' jars of piss outta mid-air ta keep us out, which is nasty. Takes more'n this ta chase me off," he informed her, though he didn't punctuate it with a smile like he might have otherwise. He was still dealing with the information she'd given him.
Shapeshifters and vampires. Josh, Wes, Aimee and Melisande were all shifters. All lions, or were there other kinds? And vampires? That lady who'd grabbed him was one? Was that why that situation had been so weird? Oh, hell, this was going to make him wonder how much else he'd been missing all this time.
"Now, you tell me Santa Claus an' the Easter Bunny ain't real when all those are, an' we're gonna have trouble." There. He tried for a joke.
Melisande's smile grew times one thousand, and she kissed him aggressively, but quickly on the lips. "If Santa Claus isn't real, than I must've been stocking up on festive lingerie for someone to see..." she said, voice trailing off as she teased him. She was glad he wasn't freaking out as much anymore, but she was more glad that he wasn't leaving her over this. It'd have broken her heart, and then someone eventually would have broken Drew's face.
"The other thing is.... I kind of told the others that I'd dose you up with something, so that the lady who grabbed you couldn't do it again - not without serious repercussions, anyways." She glanced away, and then back to him, face less hopeful than it had been before. "I wanted to make you a lion like I am, but we're sort of stocked on male lions, and I didn't think you'd like being a leopard much, since they're kind of small, and besides, Josh is already one of those... " she trailed off again.
"I was going to offer up tiger, since there aren't many that I know of, and, well, your hair," she explained. "I know it's dumb, but... it's why I thought of it."
Annnd here was where she waited for him to flip out again.
Festive lingerie? Well, THAT was a hell of a thought! His mind could go all sorts of directions with that, and without even really TRYING.
WAIT.
He was supposed to be thinking about serious stuff, and as nice as lingerie was, that really wasn't his utmost concern right then. Really. As much as he wanted it to be. Damn it.
She didn't exactly make it difficult for Drew to get back on topic, in all honesty. She busted out about 'dosing him up' so that the lady who'd attacked him couldn't try for round two, and she wasn't really looking at him. Before he could really consider what she could possibly be dosing him up with, she started talking lions and leopards and....tigers?
OH HELL. SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT MAKING HIM ONE, TOO.
If it had been any other situation, he might have been pleased that she'd put so much thought into it as to even come up with the hair thing, but this was talk of making him into a CAT. A BIG ONE. If she hadn't been in his lap, he'd have probably pushed off of his chair so fast he'd have cracked his head again.
"WAT? I don' wanna be a cat! I wanna be like I am!" he told her quickly, eyes wide again. He definitely wasn't cool with THAT.
Mel reached out, putting a hand on the table to steady herself as Drew sat up so fast he almost dumped her off of his lap. She frowned a little, but she just shook her head, putting a finger to his mouth to stop him. "Drew, stop yelling. I'm sitting less than a foot from you, and I have really, really good hearing now, okay? I know I'm not making you happy with what I'm saying, but please, just... listen to me. Hear me out."
She sighed. "The place I work - All Hallows? Everyone there is special - like Aimee and I. Marius, the bouncer, and Nikki, the bartender? Both vampires, but also shapeshifters. Drake, the other bouncer? He's a shapeshifter, too. Tawny, the pretty blonde girl with the long legs? She's a python. We watch out for eachother, too, and I'm not the only person who's worried about you. Aimee and Josh and Wesley are, too. The vampires that run that place, Drew, they're bad. All those kidnappings recently? That's them. When I realized you were missing, I thought..."
She trailed off, looking away. She didn't want to think about what could have happened. She looked back to him, blue eyes lidded, expressing her weariness. "If you were a shapeshifter, that couldn't happen again. She'd have never been able to just snatch you up like that - it's against their law. It's a law they can't break without risking death, it isn't like the laws humans have. So you see, I wanted to do this because I wanted to protect you. Josh had pretty much the same reaction, but the second he stepped out of my apartment door, he got the crap kicked out of him by another vampire. If Wesley's friend hadn't have shown up, Josh would be dead. Do you understand how severe this is? I mean, they can hit you once and break bones - literally."
She sighed. "I'm just trying to protect you," she whined.
Hear her out. Even though the things she was saying were absolutely ridiculous and NOT COOL, he could hear her out. Besides, she'd put her finger over his lips, and he wasn't going to fight with her to not sound like an idiot trying to say anything. That didn't mean he was sold on the idea, though.
He couldn't deny that, as long as he believed everything she was saying and didn't just decide that he was insane and needed to get professional help, that what she was suggesting made sense. That didn't mean he was sold on the idea, still. It just meant that he saw the good attempt at strategy that was in that plan. He had one great big issue with it, however.
Well, actually, two, but he'd already mentioned the other one.
"It's great that all y'all are worried an' wanna protect me an' all, but I ain't ever had a problem like this before. Ain't ever had to worry 'bout vampires or shapechangers or whatever y'all are, an' what says this ain't just a fluke? I prolly ain't ever gonna run inta somethang like that again," he reasoned. He thought it was a pretty good argument. Just because Josh got pwnt as soon as he left didn't mean that Drew would.
"Okay, fair enough," she paused. She looked at him, and raised her eyebrows. "What if I got attacked, though? You, as a human, wouldn't even be able to jump into that fight. You wouldn't be able to do anything - I could accidentally hurt you myself. I heal within minutes of small wounds, hours of big ones. I'm incredibly hard to kill, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. What if I were being attacked by a vampire, or even another shapeshifter? What would you do? And before you say shoot them, you don't have a clear shot."
She waited, knowing his game. He was going to use the argument that it would never happen to him, so she was going to try and appeal to his manliness by putting herself into hypothetical danger. Drew wouldn't be able to get into a fight between she and another Nyeusi - he'd die, easily. Hell, if she and Aimee decided to go at it, he ran the risk of getting shredded to ribbons. Not that they'd fight, or hurt him, but in hypothetical land, anything was possible.
Oh, that was just NOT RIGHT. She was smart, he'd give her that, and he'd actually been opening his mouth when she mentioned that he didn't have a clear shot in this hypothetical situation, and he shut it. Whether he'd been about to say exactly that or not didn't really matter, but he was painfully low on potential reactions for such a situation. This wasn't a game he was going to win, that much was clear, but what was he going to do about it? Just agree? That seemed wrong. He didn't WANT to be anything but a human!
"I'd figure somethang out," he told her indignantly, not commenting on the fact that the idea of getting his ass beat wouldn't even factor into his decisions regarding such a situation. He'd jump in anyway, and try to get a clear shot or work a knife in there, and if he got hurt in the process, well, that was something he'd just deal with.
It wasn't like he hadn't been injured for less in the past.
He was confident that he wouldn't be helpless. If it was so impossible for those things to be dealt with by humans, then why didn't they just take over or something? Why hide? "I'm not helpless, you know. You gonna tell me there ain't no way for a human ta deal with one of those things? I wouldn't leave you ta get hurt by somethang."
Melisande sighed angrily and got off of his lap. She turned, placing a hand on the edge of the chair, and gave it a hard shove, wedging him in a proper seating place at the table as though he were ready for a formal dinner and not leaned back, foot rested on the leg of the table itself. "Drew, I could pick you up in that chair where you sit right now," she informed him. "How the hell strong do you think a male lion shapeshifter would be compared to me?"
She walked away from him, because his stubbornness and unwillingness to listen to her logic was starting to irritate her. She could see why Wes had punched Josh the first time, at any rate, and she sighed angrily, running her hands through her hair as she tried to think of a better way to approach the situation. She might have to pick a fight with someone for him to understand what heavy hitters shapeshifters were. She didn't know, and she turned back around to stare at him from several feet away.
"I don't know what else to say to make you understand that this isn't some sort of game. I can't force you, though. I want this to be your choice, but I'm afraid that you're making the wrong one, here." She shrugged. She didn't know what else to say. "Next time you pick a fight with Josh, though, you'd better keep your guard up. One wrong hit from him and I'll be bringing you a stuffed teddy for when you wake up in the hospital," she said glumly, flopping down onto the couch. The edge of it picked up and landed with a thump at the sudden force in which the new and improved Mel had hit it.
Her eyes went from it to Drew, pointedly, as if to say, "See?"
Okay.
Being manhandled, even if it was really his chair, by his girlfriend was startling enough. Watching her manhandle the couch just by sitting on it too hard was worse. It made him wonder just how hard Josh COULD hit him if he was now one of these shapeshifter things. If Josh and Wes were BOTH shifters, then who the hell was he going to horse around with?
Why did he suddenly feel like he was very alone?
He hadn't even been the sort to cave to peer pressure, which this felt something like, but this was already so unbelievable that it really didn't matter if that image just made it seem more surreal. His girlfriend was trying to get him to agree to letting her dose him with something that was going to make him a cat. That was downright weird.
This wasn't looking like an argument he was going to win, though. He definitely didn't like his girlfriend being able to push him around like that, either. Great.
He made a face that suggested he really didn't believe he was saying this, but he finally spoke up. "Tell me more 'bout whatever you're tryin' to dose me with."
"I don't want to talk about it anymore right now," she said, a hand pressed to her temple. "Will you come sit over here?" she asked, looking through her fingers at him. She scooted over on the couch enough to make room for him, but it was pretty clear that she was moody enough at the moment that the prospect of trying to prod her into talking any further was going to piss her off. She just wanted to snuggle for a little and try to think - she found it easier to think when she was curled up on his chest.
A flicker of a smile splashed across her lips, and she lowered her arm from its crooked position against the couch cushion to motion him over. "I just want to cuddle for a little. I'll tell you anything you want to know, but first, I want happy feely," she said. Mel was actually feeling pretty unhappy about telling him any of this. Yes, it made her glad that he wouldn't leave her over it, but it didn't make her happy at all that she was basically giving him an ultimatum about his humanity. She supposed it would bother her more if she'd ever really been a normal human, but she hadn't. She'd always known about the Nyeusi somehow - she didn't know what allowed her to see them or sense them, but it separated her from other humans at a young age, and the segregation was enough for her not to freak out when her humanity was stolen from her as Wesley had done.
Perhaps she should have reacted differently.
Well, weren't they a pair? He was finally nearing a caving point, and she didn't want to talk about it anymore. That was just brilliant.
Fine, he could handle that. It didn't mean he'd stop thinking about it, but he could shut up and go sit with her so that she could cuddle. He tried not to be incredibly obvious about having to push his chair out to get up, but she couldn't really miss it, since she knew she'd shoved his chair the way she had. Still, he didn't need to draw attention to it.
Personally, he didn't blame HER for the ultimatum, and as he'd expected, he was still thinking about it all even as she cuddled in against him. They probably both were, but he had more of a decision situation to deal with, which wasn't cool. He wouldn't have even considered this if the only argument would have been his own safety. Hell, if he was going to get killed, he assumed he was going to get killed regardless of whether he was a human or a shifter. When your number's up, it's up. That didn't mean he wanted to risk being unable to help Melisande, though.
So. She'd said lion wasn't possible, even though she was one. Too many or something? Leopard, which was what Josh was, and she'd wanted tiger. Because of his hair. God, was he really going to agree to this for her? He hadn't been dating her too long, about 2 months at this point, so this was a big deal, but it wasn't like he'd ever had a relationship that actually worked and just felt so right as this. Maybe it'd turn out to be a mistake, but he wasn't going to regret not going for it a few years down the line.
"Fine," he said abruptly, even though he'd decided he was going to shut up so she could have her cuddles. He had to get this out before he lost his nerve. "I'll do it, but you remember this when I tell you I'm marryin' you, got it? I ain't gonna be a furrball the rest of my life jus' cause I thank it'd be fun."
Melisande had just closed her eyes when he started speaking, and she sat up to stare at him - intently, as always. Something about Melisande when she looked at Drew seemed to change when she was paying attention to him, as though she'd been a feline from day one. Her eyes, no matter where he was in the room or what he was saying, from something as mundane as "Babe, where's my sock?" to "Jesus Christ there's a tiger in the motherfucking pool!" - she was always carefully trained on him, like something golden and diamond-crusted was about to fall out of his mouth. To her, though, most of everything he said was.
Which, of course, was why when he spoke, naturally, she payed him all her attention. What he'd said, though, made her eyes widen so much that she looked like she'd swallowed something unpleasant, and she sat up abruptly, putting a hand on his chest. "You - what?" she asked, scrunching her face up and tilting her head in one motion, like a cat, trying to determine if she'd just heard correctly.
"Whatdidyoujustsay?" she asked again, voice almost a whisper, and words spoken so fast that they didn't make any sense at all. Did... Had he... WAT?
She kept that stunned look on her face, all the while he stared at her with that lazy sort of smile of his, though the expression on his face changed from apprehension to satisfaction and then to worry as he realized she was having a small 'episode' right above him. Before he could speak, though, she just burst out into excited laughter. She dove into him, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she could - probably squeezing a little too hard, but nevermind that - he'd just proposed, hadn't he? Sort of? Sort of! He'd sort of proposed!
"I promise you won't be sorry! I'll make you the happiest guy in the world!" she cheered, planting lots of tiny little kisses all over him once she'd released her practical strangehold of his neck with her hugging. She wiggled her way on top of him, pinning him down (though not in an overly sexual way), and touched her nose to his, eyes bright and wide.
"OhmygodIloveyousomuch!!!" she squealed, falling onto him for more kisses.
He was expecting a hell of a reaction from that comment, both from the fact that he'd agreed to the insanity that she and all of his friends were intent on and the fact that he'd just dropped a suggestion of marriage. Now, he wasn't actually proposing, because that involved a ring and a bit more planning, but he wanted it clear that, if he was going to consider something like being dosed with some mystery virus to turn into some kind of a cat, he was doing it for her and planning on this whole thing to be pretty damn serious. He definitely wasn't doing it for his own good, since he figured he hadn't done that badly thus far. Skill had served him well, and luck had picked up wherever his own skills failed him. Skill and luck really didn't require cat-powers.
Damn, if he was going to be a mutant, he'd have much preferred having powers like Magneto or something. He definitely didn't want to be Beast or Tigra. THUNDERCATS, HOOOO!
So, he'd expected quite the reaction, but he still ended up worried at the way she freaked out. At first, it looked like she might get upset, which was definitely worrisome, and then she pounced at him and squeezed.
Okay, being human with a girlfriend who could crush you like a python might not be a good idea, because she was seriously affecting his breathing capabilities. Fortunately, she released before his calm broke, and he had to wonder if he'd have any bruises. It still blew his mind that she was so strong.
Then came the kisses, and those were much preferable. They didn't impair his breathing, they alleviated his worry about her being upset in the same way that her stranglehold hug would have if he hadn't been thinking about himself being crushed, and they directly preceded cheering, squealed declarations of love and her jumping into his lap for more kisses. Definitely worth it. Considering how upset she'd been when this whole situation started, this was a marked improvement.
As content as he was to just accept the flurry of kisses, he reached his hands in to take hold of her face, forcing her to stop for the moment (unless she really wanted to, in which case she could have broken his grip and that occurred to him) so that he could give her a real kiss. "Love you, too." Obviously, otherwise he wouldn't be doing this.
Then, he had a request.
"Jus'...don' tell Josh or Wes, yet? Let 'em thank I fought you over this, or I ain't never gonna hear the end of it," he told her, smiling somewhat self-deprecatingly. He knew that if they heard that he hadn't just caved for Melisande's sake but also dropped a comment about a future proposal, they'd be on him like white on rice. He'd be finding Barbie wedding dresses in his locker instead of pictures of Cujo, knowing them.
He knew that's what he'd do if the roles were reversed.
"Okay!" she cheered. Really, Melisande was easily pleased - as with most other women, if you gave her exactly what she wanted, she would be contented. She kissed him a few more times, and then wiggled back against the couch next to him, burying her nose in his neck for a raspberry.
"I'll make sure to leave the details out for Aimee, too," she offered, though she didn't know how hard it would be. She wanted to jump up and down and do a dance, but really, right now the spot on the couch was pretty damn good. She snaked an arm around Drew gently, grip the same old one that the normal Melisande had, and pulled herself up for another peck on the cheek. She couldn't stop kissing on him.
Mel was decidedly much more pleasant when she was happy.
'Much more pleasant' was an understatement. Personally, he was a great big fan of the same old grip that the normal Melisande had, rather than the Hulk-style stunts she'd been doing otherwise. The kisses were definitely preferable to the lion bit, too.
He'd given her exactly what she'd wanted, and more, which was really a bad habit to get into. Not good at ALL, even if he couldn't argue with the immediate perks. It was going to be when they were trying to 'dose' him with something that was going to turn him into a damn furry that was going to have him wondering if he'd screwed up BAD. He still didn't see the purpose of all this, considering the fact that he'd just realized that ALL of his immediate friends (and girlfriend) were total heavy-hitters and could absolutely take care of any situation he couldn't. That was a blow to the ego, but he could still have his humanity, and that was more important than his ego.
Hypothetical situations and freak occurrences aside, he was pretty sure that anything she couldn't handle as a shifter that he also couldn't handle with a gun was something that him being a shifter really wasn't going to help much in dealing with. That was unpleasant, but he got that feeling. He was really much happier not knowing about all this.
"I'd appreciate that," he told her, squeezing with the arm he had around her just a little as he tried to snag kisses with his lips when she showered him in them, and he meant it. He didn't know if Aimee would make a big deal out of it or not, but a lot of women would, and it wasn't necessary just yet. There was still time.
If Melisande had known what he were thinking while she rested her head on his chest and amused herself with the sound of his heartbeat and then gentle rise and fall of it as he breathed, she might have tried to say something to make him feel better. As it stood, she could only guess what he was thinking, but really, she was sort of wrapped up thinking about weddings at that point. She hadn't ever really thought she'd get married. She knew she'd wanted to, but she also knew that she hadn't ever really met anyone serious enough to even consider it. She made a little face to herself as she realized just how lonely she'd been before Drew came along.
She looked up at him, shifting her position so that her upper body was laying on him, and she folded her arms, planting her chin on her hands, still atop his chest. "You know, I'm really glad I met you. I mean, obviously, but I just sort of realized that... I don't know. I was missing something," she said, lifting a hand to make a little shrugging motion. She wasn't sure what she was trying to say, really.
She smiled at him a little, and then rolled back to her original position, closing her eyes for a moment to clear her mind. She was so glad she had a big couch. She couldn't imagine trying to do this on a little piddly couch from Ikea or something. No, the internet was the best place for finding furniture - she'd made sure that it was big enough to be a small bed if need be.
Really, there probably wouldn't have been anything she could have said that would have truly made him feel better, but she could have tried. The fact of the matter was that he'd agreed, and would do it because he had, but he wasn't looking forward to it and wouldn't say that he really thought it was a good idea. He just wanted to be himself, no big changes.
Too late now. Melisande was just full of changes for him, and he really did assume that the changes were all because of her, since everyone else had already been in his life. He had no idea that Wes was the one demanding that his friends become shifters, or that he and Josh would have been knocked sprawling by the refrigerator sized lion if Aimee and Melisande hadn't argued that point. He assumed that she was the catalyst, and he didn't mind it SO much. The shifter thing and finding out about the supernatural world wasn't exactly his favorite part of it all, but he was much happier with her than before. Having friends was great, but that didn't do anything for you when you're sleeping alone every night.
"Glad I met you, too," he told her honestly, looking down at her as she planted herself more completely on his chest. "I thank that maybe you weren' the only one missin' somethang."
Melisande giggled as he spoke, and looked up at him, those cherub cheeks ever-present as she smiled brightly. "Thang," she repeated, mimicking his twang. "You know, when you get mad, you're almost hard to understand because your voice gets so country I can't tell what you're trying to say," she teased, poking him lightly - very lightly. She didn't want to bruise anything.
"I guess I'm no better, though," she laughed. "Even though I grew up clear across the country, I can still sound like I'm from Stanton Island if you put me in the right company for long enough. I bet if your parents ever meet me, I'll get to hear you relay to me how strange my accent sounds," she remarked playfully.
Ooh. She hadn't even thought about that. Parents. And meeting them. Oh, crap - and brothers. She winced to herself, gritting her teeth. She figured they probably wouldn't appreciate a girlfriend that had only been in the picture for a few short months suddenly becoming a more permanent fixture - or at least, knowing that their son was considering it.
"I hope they like me, whenever we do meet," she added. She frowned. If it wasn't the supernatural end of things, it was the normal end that worried her.
When she picked on his accent and poked him, he considered to drastically different options. He could drop into the absolute most country and impossible to decipher accent that he could manage, or he could do the exact opposite, and mimic any of the two or so dozen accents he had in his mental collection. He only had to hear it to remember it, so he had plenty of options.
He couldn't decide which 'flavor' was best, so he went with neutral. He could pull off that 'mid-western non-accent' as well as any newscaster. "Well, if it really matters, I could certainly fix that little problem for you," he told her, smirking ever so slightly by the end. She'd only ever heard him talk with that hick southern accent, just like Wes (at least, where English was concerned, since Wes had heard him spout some Spanish at a Puerto Rican woman who was screaming at them once), so he knew it'd be a little strange. Josh had heard him play chameleon with his accent, so his best friend wasn't as thrown off by it.
"I'm sure there ain't gonna be a problem 'bout them likin' you, so don' be worryin' 'bout that," he assured her, relaxing his throat again and just talking comfortable. Sounding Northern involved too much enunciation.
His reassurance was all she really needed for the moment. If they ever decided to take a drive or a flight over to see them, however, things would probably change pretty drastically. Melisande was a typical nice girl, which meant she worried about those things - people liking her and whatnot. It was strange, considering her place of employment, but it was just who she was.
She gave him a little slap when he tried to speak 'normal'. "I can do that too," she said, "but it's not as funny." She smiled and pursed her lips together for a moment, and then a huge grin spread across her face. "I can't wait to rat you out to Wesley. He's going to laugh so hard he'll probably sprain something. Really, could you ever see me with anyone else? I mean, look how cute we are," she said, squishing her face next to his and holding her hands up like a little picture frame.
"We could totally be one of those annoying Myspace couples," she informed him, a devious sort of twinkle in her eye. When Melisande got ahold of a camera, nobody was safe. Nobody.